The subject matter herein relates generally to electrical connectors that are configured to transmit data signals.
Electrical connectors may be used within communication systems, such as telecommunication equipment, servers, data storage, transport devices, and the like. Some communication systems include daughter card assemblies, which may be communicatively coupled to each other through a midplane assembly. Other communication systems may communicatively couple daughter card assemblies directly to a backplane assembly. Each of the daughter card assemblies includes a receptacle connector that is mounted to a daughter card, such as a circuit board. In this example, one of the daughter card assemblies may be a line card assembly and the other daughter card assembly may be a switch card assembly. The midplane assembly includes a pair of header connectors that are mounted on opposite sides of a midplane circuit board. Each of the receptacle connectors of the daughter card assemblies mates with a different one of the header connectors thereby communicatively coupling the pair of daughter card assemblies through the midplane assembly. In this configuration, each of the receptacle connectors and the header connectors is aligned along a common mating axis.
Sometimes the receptacle connectors of the communication system have an orthogonal spatial relationship such that one of the receptacle connectors is rotated 90° (or −90°) about the mating axis. In this case, one daughter card assembly is rotated about the central axis by 90°. For many applications, however, the daughter cards are offset with respect to the mating axis. Thus, the location of the daughter card within the communication system depends upon which direction the daughter card assembly is rotated about the mating axis. More specifically, using the above example, if the daughter card assembly is rotated 90°, the daughter card will be offset with respect to the mating axis in one direction, but if the daughter card assembly is rotated −90° (or 270°), the daughter card will be offset with respect to the mating axis in an opposite direction.
When reconfiguring communication systems, it may be desirable to change the position of the daughter card such that the daughter card is offset with respect to the mating axis in a different direction. The daughter card may be re-positioned by modifying or replacing the header connector of the midplane (or backplane) assembly or by modifying or replacing the receptacle connector of the daughter card assembly. Reconfiguring the header connector and/or receptacle connector, however, may be costly and difficult to accomplish. For instance, header connectors and receptacle connectors are typically only capable of mating with the other connector in one orientation.
Accordingly, there is a need for an electrical connector that is capable of mating with a corresponding electrical connector at different rotational positions.